Applicature Scholarship Program for College Students

Scholarship Objective

This scholarship is open to computer science students, regardless of their location of study, with a focus on technical entrepreneurship.

Applicants must develop a proof of concept(PoC) using distributed ledger technologies (blockchain). Financial services and supply chain management have become the obvious domains for applications of DLT. As an applicant, you are invited to research further and select any other industry, ecosystem, or business process in which application of DLT has not yet been well-elaborated.

Students are free to apply in teams of up to 5 people, or as a lone participant. The requirements of the scholarship are the same in both cases, but as a team can distribute work among members, teams must also submit the roles of each member. In the case of a team winning, the reward will be given to the team as a whole. From the time of this announcement, “applicant” can mean a lone participant or a team.

The scholarship competition itself will consist of several stages:

Registration for the scholarship: ends June 15, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. EDT.

Choose an area / problem / … and formulate a problem statement.

Submit your problem statement for approval between June 20 and July 20, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. EDT.

Work on PoC implementation and accompanying notes until Oct 15, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. EDT.

Wait for the announcement of the winner on Dec 15, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. EST.

In your problem statement, you are expected to describe the following:

What is the established state of things in the area of interest from a social contract, automation, and economic perspective?

The reasons behind your selection of a specific industry/area of research. Research the current endeavors of blockchain technology companies in the selected area of study.

A clearly-stated problem in the selected industry, validated by any available market research and individual interviews with industry experts.

Additionally, in your notes accompanying your PoC, you must provide answers on these:

Confirmation from one or more industry experts about the state of the industry problem and approval of the suggested solution. Your PoC has to find its product-market fit.

Please describe the envisioned new state of the ecosystem after the adoption of blockchain technology. What is the impact on participants, and how will the social contract change?

Show how the discovered human or organizational incentives will be implemented in the consensus/communication protocol and rules of interaction, based upon at least 3 granular use cases.

The PoC itself can be implemented with any programming language(s), libraries, and tool(s), so long as they are non-proprietary and freely accessible by the board and the general public.

By participating in this Scholarship Program, you agree that your work may be published on Applicature’s website, and that the codebase of your solution will be submitted on GitHub under GPLv3 licensure. The IP rights for the solution belong to Applicature.

Parameters of Work

The concept must be your original idea.

Your working Proof of Concept should be published on GitHub under GPLv3 licensure. The readme of the work should clearly state that this work has been done within the context of the Applicature Scholarship Program, referencing the terms of the Program.

The working Proof of Concept should be deployed by you and should be available at any time between the deadline for submission and 3 months after the date of announcement of the winner.

The PoC should involve usage of distributed ledger technology (blockchain) or smart contracts.

Additionally, if applicable, the PoC should include a simple user-facing application or layer implementing API.

15 pages or more of accompanying notes, including visual support with slides, charts, etc.

One or more confirmations from industry representatives.

Not previously published by you.

In the case of a team, submit the roles of each member.

Reward

Grand Prize: $5,000 – issued to the applicant who has received the most votes from the Applicature’s Scholarship Board.

Key Dates

Registration for the scholarship: ends June 15, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. EDT

Timeline for approving the chosen problem and solution with the Scholarship Board: June 20 through July 20, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. EDT

Deadline for submission of work: Oct 15, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. EDT

Announcement of the winner: Dec 15, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. EST

About Applicature

Applicature works on projects in the blockchain industry involving the development of smart contacts, research, and the deployment and customization of blockchain solutions; as a technical advisory to blockchain companies; and as a technical consultancy on token sales / initial coin offerings.

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